Candlelight Service

What to my wondering eyes should appear...

When out on the balcony there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash...

and I just barely got this pic of Santa flying away from our building :)



MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

d'oh!

Happy 20th birthday Homer, Marg, Bart, Lisa and Maggie!!!
Let's hope there are another 20 years to come :)

An Impromptu Photo Shoot

I was messing with the "color splash" feature (or something like that) on my camera, and we got some pretty cute pics.

Jack the interior decorator

We finally got our tree up. I got a fake tree (which just feels wrong :) because I can't deal with the mess in the apartment. But I have to say... a pre-lit fake tree is the way to go. I seriously had it all set up in like 3 minutes, then the kids hung all the ornaments they have been collecting from school, scouts, gifts, etc and it is seriously cute! Jack finally got me to get going with the tree when he said on Thursday after school, "I wish we had a tree so I could hang my ornaments." He said it so forlornly like we were never going to have a tree! It broke my heart.

So we went and picked up the tree the next morning. And Jack decorated the whole thing. AJ hung about 2 ornaments and was done, but Jack hung all the rest then spent about an hour re-adjusting them and getting it all just so. He is really particular about some things. Then he gets it all done just right and says (with a flourish), "Now it's time for the star on top!" Uh... oops. I didn't have a star :) He was disgusted with me... I forgot the grand finale.

Capitol Sing-Along

One of my favorite Austin traditions is the sing along at the capitol building. I love it because it is a very simple, no frills, old-fashioned affair. Several hundred people gather together, they hand out song books, and everyone just sings carols for an hour or so. It is the essence of Christmas. People just being together and singing songs from their childhood and enjoying the season. I really love it. This year it was VERY cold, in fact I had to go buy hats and gloves that morning, but it was fun to get bundled up (we don't have to do that around here very often) it made it even more festive. The kids ran around like wild animals and Brett kept busy chasing them all over the grounds and I sang and sang... a really great evening.

Thanksgiving

The Hayes invited us to Beaumont for another Thanksgiving extravaganza. We couldn't stay too long, Brett has been slammed at school the last few weeks, but the kids crammed a whole lot of playing into that 30ish hours. All I ever saw of Jack was a blur running past windows. They had a blast with their adopted cousins, the grown-ups stayed up way too late playing games, and everyone ate some good turkey and fixin's.

Thanks Hayes for another special Thanksgiving!

Who needs CGI? This is for real...

We found this centipede several weeks ago, and I thought I'd post it. When we first saw it, I thought it was fake, but it was oh so real. They don't mess around with bugs here. One of the most disgusting things I have ever seen is a Cicada Wasp. A cicada is a huge insect, about the size of a man's thumb, so you can imagine the horror of a wasp who routinely fights, stings, paralyzes and then flies off to it's nest, carrying the cicada to feed to it's babies. It is truly something to behold. I'm not easily creeped out by much in the animal kingdom, but I have got the heebies on many occasions here in TX.